On The Run
by GladiatorSwag
Summary: She knew there would one day come a time when she had to make the choice to stand by his side or let him go.
1. Chapter 1

_Who wants that perfect love story any way, anyway_

_Cliché, Cliché_

_Who wants that hero love that saves the day, anyway_

_Cliché, Cliché_

_What about the bad guy goes good, yeah_

_And the missing love that's misunderstood, yeah_

_Black hour glass, our glass_

_Toast to clichés in a dark past_

_-Jay-Z (Beyonce), Part II (On The Run)_

* * *

Olivia hated pictures. She hated how one picture, from the right angle, could be transformed it so that it fits a desired narrative. She hated that a private, innocent moment between lovers could be captured on camera phone and left open to interpretation.

The old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it fails to mention that it depends who is telling the story.

She stared down at the photo in her hand. She knew the exact moment it was taken. She could recall the wide range of emotions running wild through the campaign headquarters after a loss that left Fitz behind Reston in the polls. A hand lingering on the President's back long enough for someone to take a picture, not knowing it would be retweeted by thousands and become primetime news.

Her hand wasn't the national news story. It was the loving look on her face that would not allow the story to die down and go away. Suddenly, every single picture of them together was being splashed across newspapers and television screens for the American public to scrutinize. It seemed like every major news outlet had become obsessed with knowing the story behind the look.

Body language experts had been hired to figure out why Fitz looked so happy despite a devastating loss and why the corners of her lips were turned up into an almost smile. They speculated about the conversation that had taken place. Some even suggested that they'd made plans to meet in his hotel room. If it all wasn't so ridiculous, she might have found humor in it.

They would never guess that the conversation was actually about jam.

"Liv?" His blue eyes stared down at her. There were dark circles under them from a lack sleep. He was dressed in the suit and tie she'd laid out for him. The red in his tie would bring out the red pinstripes in her own suit. "It's time."

He held out his hand for her. His eyes pleading with her not to back out. Not to leave him standing alone like so many others had in his life. Mellie had packed her bags and left the day after the picture surfaced. Cyrus followed suit soon after when he realized they weren't running from another story.

She knew there would one day come a time when she had to make the choice to stand by his side or let him go.

"We're in this together." She took his hand, getting out of her own head, and stepped out into the sun by his side.


	2. Chapter 2

_I don't care if we on the run_

_Baby as long as I'm next to you_

_And if loving you is a crime_

_Tell me why do I bring out_

_The best in you_

_-Jay-Z (Beyonce), Part II (On The Run)_

* * *

Olivia learned the definition of words like impeachment and perjury before she learned all of the state capitals. She knew the consequences for a President having an extramarital affair was not necessarily cause for an impeachment. According everything she had been taught, Fitz's action didn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense. Which is why Reston and Langston continued to throw out the words "misuse of power" whenever they were in front of a camera.

Closing out the web search she'd done on impeachable offenses, she tried to focus on reading over the speech Fitz would give in yet another press conference. He should be on the campaign trail, showing his loyal supporters that he was not giving up. Instead, he was stuck in White House, like a grounded child, granting interview after interview and giving speech after speech. All of the questions and responses were starting to sound the same.

"Liv." Harrison stepped in her office and closed the door. The fact that he didn't want the others to hear told her that he was not coming to deliver good news. "The First Lady is giving an interview tonight. No word on whether or not the kids will be there. We have to use-"

"We can't, Harrison. She is the mother of his children and he's his best friend. I promised him that we wouldn't use it."

"_You_ don't make promises." He took quick steps until he was standing in front of her desk. "_We_ don't make promises. You can't go home. You can barely leave the office. This is worse than when they _thought_ you were the President's mistress. Now they know. Listen to them out there."

With the office quiet, she could hear the sea of reporters on the sidewalk below her the window. They were probably spilling out into the street with the announcement of Mellie's interview. The upcoming interview didn't change anything. The days of her making decisions for them behind Fitz's back were over. They were not going to use Mellie and Andrew's affair to take some of the heat off of them.

"If we use it, his kids get hurt, Harrison, and they've been hurt enough."

She leaned back in her chair, feeling like the weight of the world rest on her shoulders. She knew Harrison was just trying to ease some of the weight, but he didn't understand the position she was in. She and Fitz were a team. No longer would she choose self-preservation over him.

"The best way to fight Mellie is to ignore her. She can't say anymore than what we have already without admitting her knowledge of our relationship. We control the narrative."

Harrison shook his head and leaned over the desk so that he was looking her directly in the eyes. "He's going to pull you down with him."

She turned her attention back to Fitz's speech as if she had not heard him. The day Harrison gave up- the day he stopped being believing in her- she knew it was time to throw in the towel and hang up her hat. So why didn't she feel like the sky was falling? Why did she finally feel like she could see the light at the end of the dark tunnel sinceher relationship with Fitz started?

"He right." Fitz said as he strolled casually into her office like he visited her at work often. "I"m being selfish and I am dragging everyone down with me. At least that what Mellie said when she called."

He flung his tired body into a chair on the opposite side of her desk and made himself comfortable. Seeing him there, in her office, was like both of her worlds colliding when she'd struggled hard to keep them separate over the years. She'd never wanted him there yet he looked like he belonged there.

"Why are you here? How are you here?"

She torn between her reactions from seeing him there. One part of her wanted to strangle him for taking a greater risk and adding more fuel to the fire by coming there. The other part of her wanted to go to him and take him in her arms. Be strong for him when he looked like he was tethering on the edge. She started to rise from her chair but he shook his head as if he could read her mind.

"Huck got me in to see you."

It wasn't as bad as her using a Providence code to get to him but it was still bad.

"Why are you here?" She asked again.

"I needed to see you." He reached inside of his suit jacket and pulled out a thick white envelope, sliding it across the desk to her. He continued without waiting for her to open it. "There is a special committee being gather to investigate me. They are going to want to talk to you. They are going to want to know if I forced you into a relationship. If I 'misused' my power to take advantage of you."

Olivia averted her eyes away from him long enough to tear open the envelope. She dumped the contents out on her desk. She felt a hot flash of anger surge through her veins at the sight of the items. New Passports and identification cards with her picture on them and enough cash for her to live comfortably for at least two years.

"Carolyn Thomas." She read the name on one of the passports before shoving it away as if it had burned her. "You had no right to do this. You are not stashing me away until this over. I don't need protecting from you or Huck or anyone else."

"Liv, I am asking you to consider it." His voice, a soft plea, begged her to understand where he was coming from. "I thought we were ahead of this. That we were controlling it but now- now I don't know. I cannot continue to watch them tear you apart."

She rose from her chair and walked around her desk, feeling his eyes on her the entire time. She stopped next to where he sat and unfolded his arms so that she sit on his lap. She wrapped his arms securely around her and waited for the tension to leave his body. Her team could walk by and see them, but she didn't care.

She stopped caring the day she turned on her television and saw that picture on the screen.

"I am not going anywhere." She looked up at him so that he could see just how serious she was. "I am here. You cannot ask me to leave. You cannot push me away. You don't get to decided what I can take and how much I can handle. I chose to stand by your side and that's where I will remain long after this is over."


	3. Chapter 3

_I hear sirens while we make love_

_Loud as hell but they don't know_

_They're nowhere near us_

_-Jay-Z (Beyonce), Part II (On The Run)_

* * *

"Are you staying here again tonight?" Abby asked as she hesitated to join the others on the elevator. "With _him_?"

Olivia chose to ignore the venom in her voice and how she refused to refer to Fitz as anything other than _him_. She wasn't in the mood to argue with Abby. After spending the day having aspect of her personal life questioned by strangers, the last thing she felt like doing was defending why Fitz was waiting in her office for the third time that week. Besides, she had a feeling that all of her extra energy was going to be needed to convince him not to have Huck and Tom drug her and stick her on a plane in order for her not to have to face another day in front of the firing squad.

"Yes, Abby." She sighed and gently nudged the red head towards Harrison. "We are both staying here. With the press outside, it is too risky for us to go anywhere else."

"It wouldn't be risky if he would just stay away from you." Abby mumbled under her breath, ignoring the dirty looks she got from Harrison, Quinn, and Huck. "Call us, Olivia."

"I will." She lied.

She watched until they disappeared from her sight. Each giving her their own version of a sympathetic look. A strangled sob escaped her before she could hide it behind her hand. She placed her other hand on the wall next to the elevator to keep the sob from knocking her off of her feet. She was thankful that Fitz's hadn't come out of her office when he heard the elevator descend. She wouldn't be able to handle the guilt in his eyes over her mini breakdown. The guilt from being the reason people wanted to know when, where, and how they'd made love.

Everyone was looking for a smoking gun. The blue dress. A way to use her, and their relationship, to destroy him.

When she was positive that she could face him without looking worn down and broken, she straightened her back and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She bit down her bottom lip to keep it from quivering as she turned around and headed in the direction of her office. She paused outside of the glass door long enough to watch him stare out of the window, knowing he was looking down on the few reporters that were still taking up residence on the sidewalk. She could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves as she walked closer to him.

Anger towards the press for dragging her name through the mud. Anger towards the special committee. Anger towards her for not taking the way out that he'd offered her. Anger towards himself for not being strong enough to walk away from her so he wouldn't have to pull her down with him.

"The red head." He said when he heard her come to a stop next to him. "Gabby-"

"Abby." She corrected. "Her name is 'Abby.'"

"_Abby_ doesn't like me."

"Probably because you keep calling her 'Gabby.'" She joked to try and ease some of the tension in the room. It didn't work. It only made it thicker. "She's just... protective of me. They all are."

He turned his head slightly to the left to glare at the side of her head. "Am I the Big Bad Wolf or something?"

"Or something." She muttered, refusing to meet his eyes. "This affects them too, Fitz. Maybe not he same way it affects us or the kids but it does."

She watched as some of the reporters ran towards Harrison's car while the others took off towards the three black SUVs that they assumed was carrying them. She could hear them shouting questions at the tented windows and wanted to laugh at how ridiculous it all really looked. "They're nowhere near us, Fitz."

"What?" He asked, trying to understand her words.

She turned to face him, looking right into his blue eyes. "They can do their worse. They can say what they want to say and think what they want to think, but they can't touch us. They can't get to us because they are nowhere near-"

Her words were cut off by his lips crashing down onto hers. His hands framed her face, holding her still. Not that she would have been able to pull away if she wanted to. She could not remember the last time he'd kissed her –_really kissed her_- like his life depended on it.

His tongue brushed across her lips, willing her to open herself up to him. To let him in. She allowed him to deepen the kiss, bringing her hands up to fist his jacket and pull him closer to her. One of his hands slowly moved up to her hair, holding her head to his, as he walked her backwards until she felt her desk at the back of her legs.

She slid her hands under his jacket and down to the top of his pants, dragging his shirt out from them. She moaned into the kiss and pressed her body into his. Craving the physical connection they'd been denying themselves since the photo was released.

Slightly pushing him away, she reached for his tie and the same time he reached to pull her blouse from her pants. She pulled his tie off and dropped it to the floor and then went to work on unbuttoning his shirt. Her pace must have been too slow for him because he pushed her hands away to take over, shrugging out of both his shirt and jacket and letting them join his discarded tie on the floor. She took the time to pull her blouse over her head and add it growing pile of clothes on the office floor.

"You're my lifeline, Liv." He said before leaning back in for another kiss, making her breath hitch.

With those four words, she let him make love to her on her desk to the sound of cameras flashing and reporters shouting repetitive questions.


End file.
